Gaza city

July 12, 2024 4:04 PM

Israeli forces pull back after Gaza City offensive, leaving dozens of bodies, rescue service says

Israeli forces retreated from some Gaza City districts overnight after a fierce, week-long military offensive, leaving dozens of dead and wrecked homes and roads in the Palestinian enclave's biggest urban area, residents and rescue service said on Friday. The offensive, 10 months into Israel's campaign to eliminate Hamas militants, took place as U.S.-backed mediators sought to finalise a peace deal that would free remaining hostages taken by the militants in their cross-border rampage on Oct. 7...

July 11, 2024 5:21 PM

Bodies trapped in Gaza City under Israeli assault as mediators push for truce

Residents of Gaza City were trapped in houses and bodies lay uncollected in the streets under an intense new Israeli assault on Thursday, even as Washington pushed for a peace deal at talks in Egypt and Qatar. Hamas militants say a heavy Israeli assault on Gaza City this week could wreck efforts to finally end the war just as negotiations have entered the home stretch. Home to more than a quarter of Gaza's residents before the war, Gaza City was destroyed during the firs...

July 10, 2024 5:54 PM

Israel presses Gaza offensive hours after deadly airstrike on tent camp

Israeli forces pressed their offensive in north and central Gaza on Wednesday, hours after an airstrike on a tent encampment that Palestinian officials said killed more than two dozen people and as negotiations to end the fighting were set to resume. Leaflets were dropped on Gaza City, this time with a map marking "safe routes" for the evacuation of the whole city, not just certain districts. The Israeli leaflets urge civilians to head south along two routes to the central Gaza Strip. The mili...

July 8, 2024 4:57 PM

Israeli tanks storm Gaza City districts, residents report heavy fire

Israeli forces bombarded Gaza City early on Monday and columns of tanks advanced into the heart of the city from different directions in what residents said was one of the heaviest attacks in the Palestinian territory since the start of the war. The Gaza Civil Emergency Service said it believed dozens of people were killed but emergency teams were unable to reach them because of ongoing offensives in Daraj and Tuffah in the east and Tel Al-Hawa, Sabra and Rimal further west. Residents said nei...

June 25, 2024 3:07 PM

Israeli airstrikes kill at least 24 in Gaza City, say Gaza officials

Israeli forces killed at least 24 Palestinians in three separate airstrikes early on Tuesday on Gaza City and the dead included a sister of Ismail Haniyeh, the chief of the militant Islamist Hamas group, Gaza health officials and medics said. Israeli tanks also pressed deeper into western areas of Rafah in the south of the enclave overnight, blowing up homes, residents said. Two of the Israeli airstrikes hit two schools in Gaza City, killing at least 14 people, medics said. Another strike on a...

May 28, 2024 5:08 PM

Tanks reach Rafah’s centre as Israel presses assault despite global scrutiny

Israeli tanks reached the centre of Rafah for the first time on Tuesday, witnesses said, three weeks into a ground operation in the southern Gaza city that has sparked global condemnation. The tanks were spotted near Al-Awda mosque, a central Rafah landmark. The Israeli military said its forces continued to operate in the Rafah area without commenting on reported advancements into the city centre. Overnight, its forces pounded the city with airstrikes and tank fire, residents said, p...